Simon Briggs is a Daily Telegraph sportswriter with a roving brief and a knack for losing his press passes

Andre Agassi's 'Open' wins at the British Sports Book Awards. Pity about the gloopy speech

“It’s been a good night for the foreigners,” announced David Willis, the chairman of the British Sports Books Awards, half-way through last night’s dinner. And, indeed, the definition of “British” was stretched to the limit by a couple of winners.

The best cricket book of 2009 was ruled to be “Golden Boy”, Chris Ryan’s gripping biography of the former Australian captain Kim Hughes, while Andre Agassi’s controversial “Open” took the autobiography category. There was certainly nothing British about Agassi’s new-agey acceptance speech, which was recorded on video in Las Vegas. After suggesting that “writing this book was the nearest I will ever come to giving birth”, Agassi went on to compare the early drafts to an ultrasound scan. Talk about stretching a simile.

Happily, we had a few winners on this side of the pond too – notably that serial award-bagger Duncan Hamilton. Hamilton swept the board two years ago with his Brian Clough best-seller “Provided You Don’t Kiss Me”, and now his authorised biography of Harold Larwood is going down just as well with critics and judges.

Entitled simply “Harold Larwood”, the book won the lucrative William Hill prize in November, and last night it triumphed again in the blue riband category of best biography. Hamilton’s acceptance speech – delivered in person, this time – was rather more sure-footed than Agassi’s, although it also contained a nod to the significant others in his life. “When I won with my first book, I stood up here and thanked my girlfriend for her help and support,” he said. “Now I can thank my wife for the same thing.”

The awards finished on a slightly odd note when Mihir Bose, one of the members of the judging panel, took the assembled publishers to task for not producing any ghosted autobiographies as good as Agassi’s. “We have some great sportsmen on this shortlist,” he said, looking up at a set of covers that included Michael Vaughan’s “Time to Declare” and “Chris Hoy: The Autobiography”.

“But they could be better served by their publishers. Agassi’s book was written by a Pulitzer-prizewinning journalist. British publishers need to spread the net wider in search of talent from outside the world of sport.” Unsurprisingly, Bose’s words were not received with any great warmth. “I don’t mind not winning,” said one ghost-writer whose work had featured on the same shortlist. “But I didn’t expect to be abused.”

Best Autobiography sponsored by Sky Sports
Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi (HarperCollins)

Best Biography sponsored by The Times
Harold Larwood by Duncan Hamilton (Quercus)

Best Illustrated Book sponsored by Getty Images
Centre Court by John Barrett and Ian Hewitt (Vision Sports)

Best New Writer
Eclipse by Nicholas Clee (Bantam Press)

Best Rugby Book
Confessions of a Rugby Mercenary by John Daniell (Ebury Press)

Best Football Book – joint winners
Cantona by Philippe Auclair (Macmillan)
Feet of the Chameleon by Ian Hawkey (Anova)

Best Cricket Book
Golden Boy by Christian Ryan (Allen & Unwin)

Best Publicity Campaign for a Sports Book
Madeline Toy for The Man Who Cycled the World by Mark Beaumont (Transworld)